RAF Photographic awards: a look at the winners

The remarkable RAF photographic competition is an annual awards event which recognises the talent of RAF photographers promoting the image and reputation of the Royal Air Force through photography and video.

We bring you the finalist’s photographs from 2024 that caught our eye, carefully selected by 11 judges from over 1,000 entries.

There were 11 submission categories including RAF Photographer of the year, Personnel, Photographic Section Portfolio, RAF Sports and more. The judges selected their final choices for each category which included a 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and highly commended entry. From these, The People’s Choice category was selected from the best of the winners and judged online by a public vote.

The Personnel Category (sponsored by the RAF Association), saw AS2 Ben Webb win the 1^st place prize, followed by AS1 Ciaran McFalls with 2^nd place, and Hayley Ward winning 3^rd place.

We had the opportunity to interview AS2 Ben Webb, who is a Visual Communicator in the Royal Air Force, based at RAF Waddington. Ben joined the RAF five months ago as he has a passion for aviation photography.

When speaking about his winning photograph entry ‘Last Ride’, he said:

‘Luckily the Falcons came over, I quickly ran over and snapped the shot. My settings were not set to how I would like it, so I had about 15 images of the same shot, but only one came out sharp. I was very lucky with it.

I recommend it I really do (RAF); it was the best decision I made coming into it. I don’t think I’d have any other career I would like to do other than this.’

Watch the full interview video below from the awards event held at Bentley Priory Museum, Stanmore.